Saturday, March 19, 2011

Gladwell Blog

Gladwell asks if plagiarism is really stealing, and when it is considered plagiarism. Gladwell talks about without plagiarism, using, tweaking, or changing other peoples work we would not have half the stuff we have now. Music would not be the same, books, or even plays would be different if we took every little detail into aspect. To me Gladwell seems to be saying we need plagiarism but we need to accredit the person or work we are using. He goes through explaining different cases in which the person was not accredited or when they were, and all the different loop holes and feelings there are behind plagiarism. By loop holes I mean there are really easy ways to use or copy other work without having to get permission or give credit to them. But with that said it is really easy to make a mistake and plagiarize someone else and not realize it. This can be an honest mistake, a careless mistake, or someone just trying to cheat the system and Gladwell goes through a lot of these different things.

I was really bored by this piece that we read by Gladwell, it was really slow and did not interest me. I know that this is a fine feeling but I also learned some things from the piece, such as all the different ways you can plagiarize without feeling like you are. The example he went through with the play, Frozen shows how someone can easily accredit someone for their work but then not think they are plagiarizing someone else. This really made me realize how easily I could plagiarize and not think I am because I feel that it is not someones work but it may be public writing. The piece was boring but it did make me think about how plagiarism is all around me and how it effects everyday things.